The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Gas metal arc welding (GMAW) or metal inert gas (MIG) welding utilize a metal wire to act as the electrode to produce an arc. The wire, which is shielded by an inert gas, acts a filler or raw material that forms the weld. Typically, the wire and gas are fed through a welding gun positioned proximate to the desired location for the weld. The wire is fed to the gun through a conduit coupled to both a powered wire feeder and a gas flow regulation system.
Traditionally, conduits consist of a coiled steel liner used to guide the welding wire and a brass connector that is crimped over the end of the conduit. The connector is designed to reversibly couple with the rear power plug of a torch or welding gun. The specific design of the connector is dependent upon the manufacturer of the welding gun because different manufacturers will differentiate their gun design from competitive products by using different plug geometries.
The different plug geometries utilized on different welding gun designs requires equipment distributors to stock a variety of conduits each having different end connectors in order to accommodate the various gun designs. For small distributors, the necessity of carrying a full line of conduits for each different welding gun is not economically feasible. In addition, end users of welding guns may use guns made by different manufacturers and are then limited to selecting a large distributor that can stock a full line of conduits for each welding gun or to use multiple distributors to service their equipment. In either case, the end-user is required to purchase and stock multiple conduit lines to service the various welding guns that they own.